HC Deb 07 April 1975 vol 889 cc800-1
6. Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he is considering making any changes in the membership of the board of the CEGB.

Mr. Varley

There are some vacancies on the board which I expect to fill shortly.

Mr. Bennett

Is my right hon. Friend really satisfied with the present performance of the board? Would he not agree that it is high time the board was given a fresh impetus by new appointments particularly to improve the management structure and organisation?

Mr. Varley

I do not want to anticipate the inquiry that I have set up under Lord Plowden. I know that my hon. Friend and the whole House will be looking for suggestions and anything else coming out of the inquiry. If action is required and recommendations are made, I shall consider them seriously.

Mr. Skeet

As the right hon. Gentleman took the wrong decision on the nuclear power policy, will he refrain from altering the board and blame only the Government for their ill-fated position?

Mr. Varley

The hon. Gentleman is in a minority of two, I think, in the House in his support of the American light-water reactor. I should have thought that recent reports in theObserverwould have confirmed that the decision that the Government took on the SGHWR was the right one.

Mr. Patrick Jenkin

Quite apart from the choice—and he knows the position of the Opposition Front Bench on this matter—will the right hon. Gentleman recognise that what happened at Browns Ferry was nothing to do with the recommendation made to him by the Central Electricity Generating Board, because it was to do with the boiling water reactor whereas the CEGB proposal was for the pressure water reactor, an entirely different system?

Mr. Varley

I am not sure that I do know the position of the Opposition Front Bench. I know the position of the hon. Member for Abingdon (Mr. Neave), but the right hon. Member for Wanstead and Woodford (Mr. Jenkin) has yet to express a firm opinion about the SGHWR and I think that he may be the only Member who agrees with the hon. Member for Bedford (Mr. Skeet) in supporting the American reactor.